Sustainability

The design project is for students, over a series of 6-7 lessons, to create a bug hotel which

can become home to beneficial bugs. Students in the very first lesson of the program will be

investigating different bugs whose natural habitats have degraded and destroyed and who

may be at risk of extinction due to this. The whole project links in very closely with the

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 where it sets out to “protect, restore and

promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat

desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” (United

Nations, 2016). A large focus will be specifically placed on target 15.5 which aims to “reduce

the degradation of natural habitats” and “protect and prevent the extinction of threatened

species” by 2020 (United Nations, 2016). Students are thereby assisting in meeting this

target goal by providing a habitat for species who may not survive otherwise.

The project also places a large emphasis on the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability

not only by targeting the sustainable development goal but in the construction phase of the

process. A requirement of student’s hotels is that it must be made from natural and/or

recycled materials, in this way constant encouragement is placed on students to use

alternative resources which are good for the environment. As suggested by the Australian

Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2016), by consistently encouraging

sustainable actions such as this, students will begin to adopt the knowledge, skills and

worldviews necessary to contribute to sustainable patterns of living.